Writers › Writer / Poet
Liu Yiqing
Liu Song prince of Linchuan and provincial governor whose circle of scholars produced A New Account of the Tales of the World
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Liu Yiqing was a son of Liu Daolian, Prince of Changsha, and a nephew of Liu Yu, founder of the Liu Song; adopted as heir by his uncle Liu Daogui, he inherited the title Prince of Linchuan. In the Yuanjia era he served as director of the Palace Library and as governor of Jingzhou, Jiangzhou and Southern Yanzhou. His biography in the *Book of Song* (*Songshu*) says he loved letters, and writers such as Yuan Shu and Bao Zhao served on his staff. He wrote a work on the worthies of Xuzhou, and the bibliography of the *Book of Sui* (*Suishu*) lists under his name both *A New Account of the Tales of the World* (*Shishuo xinyu*), in eight chapters, and the ghost-story collection *Records of the Hidden and Visible Worlds* (*Youming lu*), generally seen as work of his circle. He died in the capital in 444, aged forty-two, and was named Prince Kang. Liu Xiaobiao's Liang-dynasty commentary on the *Shishuo* quotes many Wei and Jin works now otherwise lost.
Life and times
Dates 403 CE–444 CE